2012 Pub­lic­ity Club of Chicago Life­time Achieve­ment Honoree:

Michelle Flow­ers

Pro­fes­sional Background

Dur­ing her more than 25 years in the busi­ness, Flow­ers Welch’s career path has taken her from her native North Car­olina begin­nings as an inter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tions spe­cial­ist at an insur­ance com­pany to sev­eral com­mu­ni­ca­tions posi­tions at the Chicago Urban League. She began her career in agency pub­lic rela­tions at Golin/Harris Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, one of the top PR firms in the coun­try. Pur­su­ing her desire to work in eth­nic mar­ket­ing, Flow­ers Welch later joined Bur­rell Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Group and rose to senior vice pres­i­dent in three years. Her pas­sion for eth­nic mar­ket­ing and entre­pre­neur­ial drive led to the found­ing of Flow­ers Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Group, one of the country’s lead­ing mul­ti­cul­tural agen­cies. Now cel­e­brat­ing its 20th year, the award-winning firm devel­ops inte­grated mar­ket­ing cam­paigns for blue-chip brands and cor­po­ra­tions that seek to reach eth­nic con­sumers. A self-described “ser­ial entre­pre­neur,” Flow­ers Welch recently launched Welch Con­sult­ing, which focuses on sports mar­ket­ing projects.

Education/Awards

Flow­ers Welch holds a master’s degree in adver­tis­ing from North­west­ern Uni­ver­sity and is a magna cum laude grad­u­ate of Winston-Salem State Uni­ver­sity, where she majored in Eng­lish. She has received more than 100 indus­try awards for com­mu­ni­ca­tions excel­lence, includ­ing more than 25 Gold and Sil­ver Trum­pets from the Pub­lic­ity Club of Chicago, plus three Sil­ver Anvil Awards from the Pub­lic Rela­tions Soci­ety of Amer­ica. She also holds more than 10 Spec­tra Awards from the Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion of Busi­ness Com­mu­ni­ca­tors and two CIPRA Awards from Inside PR mag­a­zine. She has been named one of Chicago’s “Top 100 Black Busi­ness and Pro­fes­sional Women,” one of the Chicago Jaycees Ten Out­stand­ing Young Cit­i­zens, is the recip­i­ent of the “Woman of the Year Award” given by the National Coun­cil of Negro Women, is a Chicago Urban League “Beau­ti­ful Peo­ple” hon­oree, and was a char­ter inductee into North­west­ern University’s Hall of Fame. Flow­ers Welch served as guest lec­turer in the busi­ness school at Miami Uni­ver­sity in Oxford, OH. Flow­ers Welch also was awarded the Founders Award from the National Black Pub­lic Rela­tions Soci­ety. In 2006, she was inducted into the PR News Hall of Fame for her dis­tin­guished career in pub­lic relations.

Business/Community Affil­i­a­tions

Alliance of Busi­ness Lead­ers & Entre­pre­neurs (ABLE); served as chair of ABLE’s “Evening with the Chair­man” fea­tur­ing Time Warner CEO Dick Par­sons; Advi­sory Com­mit­tee mem­ber, for­mer Advi­sory Board Chair, Black Cre­ativ­ity; Advi­sory Com­mit­tee mem­ber, Kennedy-King Col­lege Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Depart­ment Advi­sory Coun­cil mem­ber, ETA; mem­ber, Chicago Urban League, Pub­lic Rela­tions Soci­ety of Amer­ica, Pub­lic­ity Club of Chicago, National Black Pub­lic Rela­tions Soci­ety, Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion of Busi­ness Com­mu­ni­ca­tors and Alpha Kappa Alpha Soror­ity, Inc.